Question / Help Recording 1080p 60fps Action games (for YouTube)

[Compulsion84]

I just switched over to OBS studio from classic and I'm liking it so far. I'm getting more into game capture, eventually streaming, but focusing on capture for now. I have a pretty fast computer (i7 6700k & 1070 GPU) and I'm trying to capture games at 1080p, 60fps. I'm currently using veryfast with lanczos filter. Windows is on an SSD w/ OBS. Recording drive is a 4TB WD Black.

I've spent a lot of time doing testing with CBR, but I'm starting to peg my CPU to 100% or near 100% in x264 CBR at 12,000 or above bitrate. I also had some random "stutters" or dropped frames in the recording I'm trying to resolve. I'd like to maximize quality since some of my recordings weren't as clear as Action. I can't use Action because it's bugged and the dumb thing records at half speed :(.

Sorry if this is a repost, but with tons of online reading I haven't found anything definitive. There is a lot of cross talk that seems to be personal preference. The quality guide here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...lity-recording-and-multiple-audio-tracks.221/
seemed helpful, but a lot of posters said not to use CRF. Reading the OBS manual makes CRF or VBR sound like the best. I'm trying to understand a lot of variables and reduce further experimentation time.

I'm spinning my wheels and starting to get frustrated so I'm asking for help. If you have "cookie cutter" recording recommendations for me it would be greatly appreciated. It seems like using a hardware encoder is the way to go since I have a bit of overhead with my 1070. Doing x264 CBR above 12K had a few random issues and took my CPU usage from 30-40% to 90-100%.

EDIT: I use PD12, which doesn't look to have an issues with MKVs. I extract audio streams from videos with audacity.

Here's the list of questions I'm trying to sift through:

1. I am doing multi track audio. Was using MP4, but I heard MKV is better. Is there any downside to MKV vs MP4?
2. For recording, what is the best software encoder to use?
3. For recording, what is the bst Rate control to use (CBR, ABR, VBR, CRF)?
   
4. Is there some issue with CRF vs CBR?
5. Is recording to NVENC H.264 actually a bad idea?
6. If I do use NVENC H.264, what bitrate should I target? I was thinking 50K.
7. If I want to stream and record simultaneously, is CBR the best option?
8. If I use the high quality settings from the guide (shown below), is x264 or NVENC better?

Thank you very much for your help.

Guide Snippet:
x264

• Rate Control: CRF
• CRF: 15-25
• CPU Usage Preset: can be lowered to superfast/ultrafast on high cpu usage

NVENC

• 
  
• Rate Control: CQP
• CQP: 15-25
• Preset: High-Quality
• Profile: high

My log is here:
https://gist.github.com/baab553d3c6b10d316e37ec5eb886827

Hardware cliff notes:
18:18:45.624: CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
18:18:45.624: CPU Speed: 4008MHz
18:18:45.624: Physical Cores: 4, Logical Cores: 8
18:18:45.624: Physical Memory: 32727MB Total, 25683MB Free
18:18:45.661: Initializing D3D11..
18:18:45.661: Available Video Adapters:
18:18:45.662: Adapter 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
18:18:45.662: Dedicated VRAM: 4246405120
18:18:45.662: Shared VRAM: 4273823744

 

[Harold]

I am doing multi track audio. Was using MP4, but I heard MKV is better. Is there any downside to MKV vs MP4?

You have to remux after recording if your editing software doesn't support mkv. No this is NOT a valid reason to save directly to mp4 given mp4's reliability.

For recording, what is the best software encoder to use?

Software low cpu use (x264)

Is there some issue with CRF vs CBR?

CRF based bitrate selection allows the encoder to choose the correct bitrate for the quality. For recording, CBR is BAD.

Is recording to NVENC H.264 actually a bad idea?

No. Recording is fine

If I do use NVENC H.264, what bitrate should I target? I was thinking 50K.

You shouldn't control using CBR, you should use CRF or CQP and let the encoder handle things.

If I want to stream and record simultaneously, is CBR the best option?

No. Using separate recording and streaming settings is.

If I use the high quality settings from the guide (shown below), is there any quality difference between x264 or NVENC?

The quality per bitrate ratio will be better with x264, so you'll have smaller files.

 

[Compulsion84]

As a c

CRF based bitrate selection allows the encoder to choose the correct bitrate for the quality. For recording, CBR is BAD.

You shouldn't control using CBR, you should use CRF or CQP and let the encoder handle things.

The quality per bitrate ratio will be better with x264, so you'll have smaller files.

Thank you VERY much. You saved me a lot of time; there's a lot to sift through setting up OBS and a lot of misinformation.

A couple follow ups.

1. With x264, CRF 15, veryfast (from guide): do I need to change profile or tune at all? I assume VFR should be OFF.
2. With CRF in x264, does the performance suffer when the bitrate increases? I was thinking that higher bitrate screens would require more resources, but I was unsure b/c the filesize is increasing.
3. I forgot to ask in the original post. Is Quicksync worth looking into? I read that it may have quality issues and I figured x264 or NVENC was better than QS.

 

[Harold]

You shouldn't need to adjust the tune, recording h264 profile of automatic or high should be used. Bitrate does not affect performance.
Quicksync on your system has a FAR better quality per bitrate ratio than nvenc. Intel got WAY ahead of AMD and Nvidia on that hardware back around haswell.

 

[Compulsion84]

You shouldn't need to adjust the tune, recording h264 profile of automatic or high should be used. Bitrate does not affect performance.
Quicksync on your system has a FAR better quality per bitrate ratio than nvenc. Intel got WAY ahead of AMD and Nvidia on that hardware back around haswell.

You weren't kidding about file size. I haven't testing quicksync yet, I just turned it on.

Setting : GB / hour (size)
OBS x264 CRF 15, Veryfast: 11.1 - gb/hr
OBS x264 CRF 20, Veryfast : 7 - gb/hr

OBS NVENC CQP 10, high Q, profile High: 48.3 - gb/hr
OBS NVENC CQP 15, high Q, profile High: 44.8 - gb/hr

 

[Sapiens]

Output size from OBS shouldn't be a concern unless you're short on hard drive space. You can always run the video through a program like Handbrake afterwards to compress it more effectively, since the work doesn't have to be done in real time.

 

[Compulsion84]

Output size from OBS shouldn't be a concern unless you're short on hard drive space. You can always run the video through a program like Handbrake afterwards to compress it more effectively, since the work doesn't have to be done in real time.

I"m with you on that. My only major concern is very large NVENC files will start to eat into HD space. A couple hours of gameplay caps and an archive will eat up my 4TB quicker than I'd like.

I edit videos to put out a final product. If I used handbrake on the raw files before editing / production will I lose quality at all? Is it similar to ziping in the sense that it condenses the files, but loses no info?

 

[Raca]

x264 uses the CPU for capturing. That's why your CPU usage skyrockets.
NVENC H.264 uses de GPU for capturing.

My PC is an old 3rd Gen i5 with 16 gb Ram (DDR3 bus 1600) and 1 TB 7,500 rpm HD as main and a 1TB external (Capture redirected to external HD) and allows to capture for youtube at 1080 60 fps.

So your PC is way better than mine. Still I do prefer using the NVENC (GPU is GTX 1070 OC 8GB GDDR5 from Asus).

Rate Control: CBR
Bitrate: 35000 (Higher is better BUT might affect your ingame fps).
Preset: Default
Profile: Main
Level: Auto
"Use two-Pass Enoding" cheked
GPU: 0
B-frames: 2

Worked best for me than using CPQ at 18 Bitrate.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuZvI6IN6uRIBtdn7N4VVQg here you will see what I have uploaded.

All videos are saved with the presets for CBR. Finish quality depends on the game. Have few videos for BF4, BF1, DoD, Grid Autosport so you can check if that works for you. Sometimes 1080 is lost because of my shity upload conection. Still have to play around with the settings because I feel it can be better but just had no time for it.

I also capture in MP4 because is what YouTube uses. If you capture in MKV (best than mp4), will take longer to upload because YouTube will have to convert MKV to mp4. So if you are uploading to youtube, use mp4. If it is for personal videos or stuff, use MKV.

My games video settings for multiplayers vary depending on the game. BF1 is set in low so I can have better fps ingame. GRID, BF4 and DoD are all video settings maxed. Just unchek the Vsync in all games because it will limit the performance of the GTX 1070.

For the space issue, I do capture several games, edit, uplaod and then delete the original files so I can keep going. In simple, capture, upload, delete, done!

BTW... I suck at playing but is fun.

Saddly there is no one set that is optimal or best. You just have to try different approaches.

This 2 links are the ones that I took as base for my settings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbYMEOYonbo Nicely explained for what he uses
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=LLRZNJTPr0butbNTNIYeWE5A Good explain for different encoders.

Hope it helps.

And as usual.... be cool!!!!!

 

[Harold]

x264 uses the CPU for capturing. That's why your CPU usage skyrockets.
NVENC H.264 uses de GPU for capturing.

You mean encoding, not capturing.

Rate Control: CBR
Bitrate: 35000 (Higher is better BUT might affect your ingame fps).

No and don't use CBR for recording.

I also capture in MP4 because is what YouTube uses. If you capture in MKV (best than mp4), will take longer to upload because YouTube will have to convert MKV to mp4. So if you are uploading to youtube, use mp4. If it is for personal videos or stuff, use MKV.

This is TERRIBLE advice. If ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING prevents the mp4 from finalizing properly, it will be irrepairably corrupt.

ALWAYS use MKV for multitrack audio. NEVER SAVE DIRECTLY TO MP4.

 

[Raca]

Thx Harold!

 

[BraveHen]

MP4 is better for multitrack audio, because you will use premier pro or others and they use only mp4 and if you use mkv you will have to convert it so you lose all multitracks into single track.

 

[TryHD]

MP4 is better for multitrack audio, because you will use premier pro or others and they use only mp4 and if you use mkv you will have to convert it so you lose all multitracks into single track.

You should never record to MP4, because on the slighest problem the recording will be unrecoverable lost with that container. Record in mkv and remux that to mp4, OBS has a built in function for that.

 

[BraveHen]

You should never record to MP4, because on the slighest problem the recording will be unrecoverable lost with that container. Record in mkv and remux that to mp4, OBS has a built in function for that.

i tryed but it just combines all tracks so yeah i would risk my hole recording instead of losing 100% change the video because i will delete it because i want to edit every video.

 

[TryHD]

i tryed but it just combines all tracks so yeah i would risk my hole recording instead of losing 100% change the video because i will delete it because i want to edit every video.

Than you do something wrong, if i remux and the mkv has 6 different audio tracks the mp4 remux does have too.